Vacation Times
Been CRAZY busy these past two weeks, so haven't had the chance to update about all the happenings at all.
Christmas season is finally over and done with. I enjoyed it and made a lot of good memories, but I am SO happy that it's over. I was still finishing Christmas gifts Christmas Eve evening, and actually burst into tears because I was so frustrated over it all and wound up having to give my Mom her dress unfinished (still need to finish it).
Was extremely happy to have Graham over for Christmas Eve through that weekend. He helped me immensely, cleaning up the house which was still wrecked from the Christmas party, and sewing up the sashes for my sister's kimonos.
Spent the holiday with Graham at my family's, which was fun and ended with a really fun game called "Last Word", with me rather tipsy from drinking wine and some sweet thing with bubblegum vodka that my Mom made me.
New Years Eve was celebrated at Laina and Brian's beautiful new house. Had a lot of fun, but made the mistake of mixing too many liquors (pretty sure the Irish Carbomb is what finally ruined me), and got sick and had to go home. D:
Still, got some pretty nice pictures, mostly from Anne's camera. Miko had the idea that the theme for the party be that your outfit somehow hid liquor, inspired by the Tequila Bandolier that Laina got me for Christmas. So I made myself a bandito costume for less than $10 bucks from a trip to the flea market, where I got some carpet like fabric and a $3 cowboy hat.
My bandito costume. You very well may see me wearing this at a con in the future.
Somehow, I am making the most normal face in this picture, which never happens.
Graham being KAWAII DESU.
The box of fireworks that we set off in the backyard. Graham and I took cover behind a piece of cardboard in front of it, set up to shield everyone else.
New Years Day was pretty low key, brought some clothes back to Kohl's that my Mom got me that were too small. However, she only had one receipt, and needed to use it to bring clothes back for my sister's, and there were no larger sizes for the clothes I was returning, so they only gave me $7 store credit for them. :/
Next day we headed out in super chilly weather to go camping in Wekiva Springs with Jeff and Lily. We had a VERY unhelpful lady at the welcome center, who didn't give us very good directions for our camp site, which was only accessible by canoe. We tried calling her when we had been rowing for 3 and a half hours, and her helpful advice was that "I told you not to screw around in the park.", and that the campsite was marked by a pile of shells on an island.
So we rowed on for some more, and finally decided that we must have passed by it, so we turned around and discovered that we had indeed passed it, that there was NO pile of shells anywhere, and the only way to really see the sign marking the site was to come from the opposite way that we had originally come from the springs.
Canoe trip total= FIVE HOURS. I cannot express fully how horrible and sore I felt after that, my entire body hurt, and it was even worse because it was cold, and my muscles were so stiff they couldn't even shiver properly.
Besides that, had a lot of rustic fun. Graham showed off his impressive wilderness skillz, keeping the fire going, and making lots of yummy food. It sucks that we got to the site so late (again, many thanks to Linda, the most unhelpful person of the year thus far), was hoping to do a bit of exploring while there was still sunlight. Had a VERY chilly night, and then paddled back the next morning, which was a lot of fun and MUCH easier since it wasn't even 2 hours for the ride back. Hope to go camping again with Lily and Jeff again soon, we all agreed we want to have a campsite we can just drive up to, so we can make lots of yummy camp food. :) Motto of the trip: "We beat the SHIT of out nature!"
Lily looks hilariously suspicious of Jeff in this picture.
Lily getting excited about the basil and tomato roll stuffed with cream cheese that we brought.
Graham being MANRY and chopping up wood.
The next COOOOLD morning. Lily took advantage of Jeff's warm pockets.
4 (ninja?) turtles sunbathing on a log.
After camping, Graham and I went up to Jacksonville and stayed the night, then drove out to Tennessee the next morning. Had a fairly epic car drive, where the road we were supposed to take was closed due to a rock slide, and we had to take a huge detour. Drove through the snow at 3,000+ altitude, which was fairly terrifying and looked like we were going into Hyper Speed in Star Wars.
Made it into Pigeon Forge, TN around 9:15 at night, and found ourseleves in what was basically I-Drive, but in the middle of the mountains. We totally weren't expecting this at all, and couldn't believe all the crazy stuff we drove by.
Got to our AMAZING cabin, and settled in for the night. The next morning we had a delicious breakfast at the Old Mill Restaurant, then went up to the National Park. We wanted to go drive the car high up into the mountains, but the road was closed due to ice. So we went hiking at the trails near the welcome center, accidentally walking along more than intended, thus "hiking the shit out of nature". Was a lot of fun, I kept thinking about how different the park must be in different seasons, and thinking about possibly making it back to TN later this year.
Drove back to Pigeon Forge, and bypassed all of the crazy tourist attractions to scope out the Beef Jerky outlet and the three wineries, because Graham and I like to act like old people. X3 We picked up some really awesome wines though, Blackberry and Blueberry mix, and Applewood White.
Stayed in our cabin for the rest of the evening, made dinner together, drank wine and watched movies in front of the fire. Also took advantage of the jacuzzi, where I could stand in the water where it was super hot, but still have the top of my body out in the 16 degree weather. O___O
The view we had on our drive. The mountains look so pretty!
Our first glimpse of snow, frozen in some mulch at a rest stop.
DELICIOUS dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup (love that I actually got the steam rising out of it in this photo), and plum wine. We only had one wine glass though, so Graham only got a regular drinking glass. XD
Laina had requested that we build a penis out of snow, but there wasn't actually enough around to build things, so I drew her a dick on the roof of the car instead.
Photos of the town.
SO MANY PANCAKE HOUSES. I counted 9 on the trip from our cabin to the Walmart that was just down the road.
I remember there used to be a Duff's in Orlando, but it was a buffet, not a smorgasbord. I now weep for the loss.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
WHAT.
This magic show had a powerful combination of lighting and tigers used in the huge TV screen outside for advertising. They also had animatronic tigers on the roof.
Graham and I wondered if the GOOD FOOD here was actually cats.
GOOD SHOW, MY WORD.
IS DELICIOUS.
WOOD SIGNS. LASER ENGRAVING. BEER.
We had breakfast at The Old Mill Restaurant, which was pretty spectacular.
The army of ducks we could see from our window seat.
Breakfast:Before.
Breakfast: AFTER.
Unfortunately didn't get a picture of my own personal syrup before, but it was completely full when I first got it. This is how much I went through during the course of breakfast.
Found in the general store. Apparently you can eat EVERYTHING, including the shell! DDD:
The view as we drove up into the national park.
♥
Pictures from our hike in the park.
Cool waterfall that was half frozen.
Proof that I got use out of the awesome gigantic fluffy earmuffs that Meru gave me for Christmas. >3
Graham had to be manly and see how cold the water was.
And then he found a friend.
After scoring some free wine glasses from the wineries that we visited, our drinking was enhanced by not having to rely on water glasses.
Our fireplace. It sorts of looks like a scary old man face.
The view from our kitchen on the second morning, after it snowed more.
In the winter, my nose is pretty much constantly gross from allergies, so I have to have tissue paper in all rooms of where I'm at. I realized how hilarious it wound up looking when I left it by the netbook, though.
Breakfast! I really wanted to make this lovely and skarly like Mer does, but I actually couldn't figure out how to do it. I suppose it might come more natually if I was as cute as her. X3
Pictures of our awesome cabin. Here's the living room.
Bedroom, with cute bay window. Unfortunately couldn't find a good angle to take a picture of our awesome bathroom, which was almost the same size as the bedroom.
HOT TUB! ♥
The outdoor dining area that we obviously got SO much use out of. XD
TERROR DRIVE aka our driveway from our cabin to the road.
Documentation of the terrifying "driveway" we had to conquer to get to and from our log cabin in snowy Tennessee. This is the ride down the "mountain".
TERROR DRIVE PT 2.
We made a poor life choice and decided to eat at Golden Corral on the ride home.
...Where the food was pretty spectacularily awful, but Graham and I fixed this somewhat by adding all the contents on our plated into soups/piles.
Was sad to leave our awesome cabin the next morning (and concluded, once again, that if I ever make enough money, I am totally buying a log cabin in the mountains), and drove back to Jacksonville. Stayed at his parents house for 2 nights, and got to spent time with his family talking and eating awesome fried fishes. Now waiting for Graham to get out of work today (early) and we're going to be driving back to my house for anime night, a party at Alina's, and Universal/IOA on Saturday.
Phoking (pronounced "fo-king") noodle place in Jacksonville.
This truck parked next to us at a gas station started belching out alarming amounts of smoke from it's back compartment. We left ASAP.
Hoping to have time when I get home today to resize my pics, and post them along with this post, so hopefully it won't be hilariously outdated by the time it gets put on the internet, like the last big post I made. XD EDIT: Did not in fact have time, and am now finishing all this on Tuesday, 5 days after I hoped to. >___>